A variety of techniques and apparatuses have been used to satisfy the requirements of automated currency handling machines. As businesses and banks grow, these businesses are experiencing a greater volume of paper currency. These businesses are continually requiring not only that their currency be processed more quickly but, also, processed with more options in a less expensive manner. At the upper end of sophistication in this area of technology are machines that are capable of rapidly discriminating and counting multiple currency denominations and then sorting the currency bills into a multitude of output compartments.
However, many of these high-end machines are extremely large and expensive such that they are commonly found only in large institutions. These machines are not readily available to businesses which have monetary and space budgets, but still have the need to process large volumes of currency. Other high-end currency handling machines require their own climate controlled environment which may place even greater strains on businesses having monetary and space budgets. For example, one of these machines can cost over $500,000, it can weigh over 1,400 pounds, measuring over 5 feet in length, over 2 feet in depth, and over 5 feet in height. Additionally, the stringent environment specifications may require a narrow humidity range, such as between 50-55%, and a narrow temperature range, such as between 70-74° F.
Typically, in the handling of bulk currency, after the currency bills have been analyzed, denominated, authenticated, counted, and/or otherwise processed, the currency bills are sorted by denomination into separate output receptacles or cassettes. The resulting individual stacks of bills having a single denomination must then be further processed so that the bills therein may be strapped. Bill strapping is a process whereby a stack of a specific number of bills of a single denomination are bounded together such as being secured with a paper strap. For example, one dollar bills may be segregated into stacks of one hundred $1 bills and then bound with a paper strap. Strapping facilitates the handling of currency by allowing the strapped stacks of bills to be counted rather than the individual currency bills. Traditionally, U.S. currency bills are strapped in stacks containing one hundred bills.
The task of bill strapping can increase the amount of time required to process a given batch of currency. Some currency handing machines are able to segregate currency bills into individual denominations, then the operator must manually count the bills into smaller batches for strapping purposes. In other situations, a currency handling device may suspend operation after a predetermined number of bills of a given denomination have been delivered to an output receptacle at which time the operator can remove those bills from the output receptacle and bind the bills with a paper strap. However, this manner of strapping can increase the time required to process a batch of currency bills.